Alt OS: running OpenSolaris, Syllable, and Haiku on the Eee

The Asus Eee PC is versatile and easy to hack. Developers have brought a …

Enthusiasts have written recipes that explain how to install various desktop Linux distributions on the Asus Eee PC, but what about other operating systems?

Sun's Rolf Kersten writes about how to use an external USB optical disc drive to install OpenSolaris 2008.05 on the Eee PC. The OpenSolaris community supplies an experimental binary package with Atheros drivers that are compatible with the Eee's wireless hardware. Users report that it works reasonably but doesn't have support for suspend and resume yet. You can see it in action in this YouTube video.

Despite its limited specs, the Eee has proven to be highly versatile and easy to hack. In addition to these niche alternative operating systems, derivatives of many popular Linux distributions are being specially tailored and customized for the hardware. During a recent interview with The Guardian, Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth revealed that an Ubuntu Netbook Remix for the Eee and similar subnotebook mobile devices, is currently under development.